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People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. Welcome to From On High.

Monday, July 16, 2012

The World Is Stuck On Stupid

The latest rage among government-growth-by-any-means-necessary types is the carbon tax. A tax on emissions. The stuff you exhale. A tax that has been adopted by liberal governments around the globe whose sole purpose is to reduce the amount of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere raise bucketloads of cash for cash-strapped bureaucrats who require ever increasing amounts of revenue in order to refashion the world. A tax that came perilously close to being passed by Congress in this country in 2009/10.

It all stems from the theory that CO2 is somehow a pollutant. Something that is detrimental to our health. An implausible concoction by leftists that even the United States Supreme Court has bought into.

The earth would have warmed faster in the last two decades had there not been an unexplained rise in the amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed on land, scientists believe.

Scientists have discovered an "abrupt increase'' since 1988 in the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) by the land biosphere, which comprises all of the planet's plant and animal ecosystems.

Wellington-based scientist Dr Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, was part of the global research team investigating the distribution of CO2 emissions.

Ms Mikaloff-Fletcher said the breakthrough had taken scientists "completely by surprise''.

Ms Mikaloff-Fletcher said there had been some theories about what had caused the increased uptake by the land, but so far no answer has been found.

"What it does mean is that the climate change has been a lot slower than it would have been otherwise (because) less of the CO2 we're producing is staying in the atmosphere.''

Ms Mikaloff-Fletcher said scientists were now trying to establish what caused the increase in CO2 being absorbed by the land and whether that might change in the future.

"While the increase was shown to be significant, the physical processes driving it remain a mystery. It poses big questions for us. What caused this shift? What can it tell us about how land's ability to take up CO2 is going to change in the future? How is that going to feed back into climate conditions in the future?'' [link]

What does this mean?

At minimum, it means we don't know enough about what's going on. But it seems CO2 works to retard the expansion of global warming.

At minimum, the rise in CO2 levels is potentially a boon to the Earth's health.

At minimum, we shouldn't be discouraging its growth until we know more about its effect on the biosphere. It may be a good thing.

At minimum, we sure as hell shouldn't allow politicians to tax it.

When we - and they - know enough about it, then we can have that discussion.